30 Quotes That Define America

By Alex Buscemi, Editorial Manager at Builders | 6 min read

This weekend, America turns 250. And if you go looking for the single idea that has carried this country through revolution, civil war, depression, and every kind of division, you keep landing on the same one: that wildly different people can still choose to belong to each other.

Here are 30 famous quotes, from founders and presidents to poets and thinkers, that capture what it means to stick together and find common ground.

1. "E Pluribus Unum — Out of many, one." — Motto of the United States (1782). Four words stamped on our coins and our character: many peoples, one nation.

2. "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." — Frederick Douglass (1855). Judge an alliance by the cause, not the team.

3. "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies." — Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address (1861). Lincoln's plea on the eve of civil war.

4. "This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in." — Theodore Roosevelt. The common good, stated plainly.

5. "The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life." — Jane Addams. The social reformer's case that no one is truly safe until everyone is.

6. "We shall all be alike — brothers of one father and one mother, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one government for all." — Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, "An Indian's Views of Indian Affairs" (1879). A plea for one people, equal under one law, from a man whose own people had been denied exactly that.

7. "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." — Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address (1953).

8. "We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more." — Billie Jean King. The champion's argument that shared purpose matters more than division.

9. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." — Margaret Mead. The anthropologist's argument that lasting change begins when people come together around a common purpose.

10. "Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world." — Dolores Huerta. The farmworker leader's belief that change is everyone's job.

11. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that." — Martin Luther King Jr. On meeting hatred with something other than more hatred.

12. "We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond." — Gwendolyn Brooks. The poet's reminder that our lives and futures are inseparable.

13. "We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn." — Mary Catherine Bateson. A call for humility and shared understanding as the foundation of living together.

14. "We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike." — Maya Angelou (1990), from her poem Human Family.

15. "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." — Jackie Robinson. The words inscribed on his headstone.

16. "In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute." — Thurgood Marshall.

17. "We want an America as good as its promise." — Barbara Jordan, Democratic National Convention keynote (1976).

18. "We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic." — Jimmy Carter. Difference as a feature of the design, not a flaw.

19. "All great change in America begins at the dinner table." — Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address (1989). Proof that the work of the country starts in the smallest rooms.

20. "A thousand points of light — community organizations spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good." — George H.W. Bush, Inaugural Address (1989).

21. "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." — Gloria Steinem. A reminder that building a better society requires us to rise above old divisions and think together in new ways.

22. "America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals." — George W. Bush, First Inaugural Address (2001). What actually holds this country together.

23. "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there is the United States of America." — Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention keynote (2004).

24. "Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans." — John McCain, concession speech (2008). From a man defined by reaching across the aisle.

25. "Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Persuasion over contempt, in a single sentence.

26. "Never be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble." — John Lewis. The civil rights icon's life motto.

27. "The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members." — Coretta Scott King (2000).

28. "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." — Fred Rogers (1983). The most reassuring words ever spoken on American television.

29. "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." — Helen Keller (early 1920s). Maybe the most American idea of all: we build best when we build together.

30. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." — The Declaration of Independence (1776). The promise we started with, and the one we're still working to keep — together.

Alex Buscemi can be reached at abuscemi@buildersmovement.org

Art by Matthew Lewis